Should I get my own router?

I actually have three questions to put here... here are the other two:
2. What should I get?
3. Will a wireless modem interfere with other devices' RF?
My whole household uses AT&T U-verse and let me just say, it's complete trash. My download speed is a cool 2mbps. Because of this, I'm thinking... show more I actually have three questions to put here... here are the other two:

2. What should I get?

3. Will a wireless modem interfere with other devices' RF?

My whole household uses AT&T U-verse and let me just say, it's complete trash. My download speed is a cool 2mbps. Because of this, I'm thinking of purchasing a router of my own to go in my room where I have an Xbox One.
So that brings me to the second question. What should I get? I don't want anything over $200, but I do want something fairly powerful. I don't know much about this kind of thing, but I did some research and found that the NETGEAR Nighthawk is a good bet.
The Nighthawk is wireless, so obviously it uses RF. But both my controller and headset are wireless. Will it affect them? I've heard of other people having connection problems.

Answers - Page 2 of 2

It doesn't matter if you buy a new router, you get what you pay the company for. If you pay for 2 MB/s, that's what you'll get. So if you want faster speeds, you have to pay for faster ones.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

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First, try this test. Go to your existing router, and look for ports on the back that will accept an ethernet cable. Connect your computer to that directly, and do a speed test. That shows what the maximum speed you will get can be. If that's not enough, your best bet is probably to get a cable modem, if that is offered in your area. More cost effective, at high speeds. Unless you're in one of those rare neighborhoods that has fiber.

If the speed with a direct connect is good, then you will need to run that cable to your room. In your room, you can either connect your device, or connect to a wireless router or extender. The brand and model doesn't matter much if it's just going to cover your room. I've used $5 ones from flea markets and craigslist, and they're fine.

You need to check your service contract for the presence of an "exclusive equipment" clause. I don't think you are allowed to buy your own router and, in fact, you risk losing your service by doing that.

Welcome to the world of service contracts.

By the way, the advice you were given on another part of your question is spot-on. No matter HOW hot the modem is that you put in the circuit, you can't drag more speed out of the cable than was put into it. Just can't be done. Not physically possible.

You cannot get faster than the incoming connection speed - and you cannot use two routers at the same time on the same modem or cable box.

The incoming connection works with a single device which is a router. Try and connect more and either one or none will work.

It's the router that masquerades multiple devices on your LAN and makes them appear to be a single thing to the outside world.

Also note that WiFi should always be an absolute last resort if other connections are totally impossible..
Use Ethernet, or gigabit-rated homeplug if that is not possible.

WiFi is vastly overused, for things it was never designed for, and suffers tremendous problems in many towns and cities - plus interference from other devices. 5GHz [ 802.11a / 11ac ]is a lot better but compatibility is still fairly rare.

I get and pay for 18Mbps from AT&T. No other router/modem will get me anything faster than that since that is what I'm paying for.

If you pay for 2Mbps, then that is all you can get. If you want faster Internet, you have to pay for a faster package.
If you're paying for more than 2, but only getting 2, then that means there is a problem. If multiple people are online at the same time, then it slows down for everyone since it is a shared network.

And yes, Wi-Fi is a radio frequency and can cause issues with other devices. However, in my nearly 10 years of using Wi-Fi, I've never had it interfere with wireless controllers.

If for some reason you do get interference, you can switch the wireless channel on the Wi-Fi router.

Also note: you cannot get rid of the AT&T gateway. U-Verse will only work with specific AT&T U-Verse gateways. You can, however, plug in a Wi-Fi router into it, but you need to perform some slightly advanced configurations so that it works correctly and not have conflicts.

The Netgear Nighthawk is a good router but it's not going to increase your to megabyte speed to anything faster it will just extend the range throughout the house bit better and if you should find that the channel frequency interferes with something you can change the channel of the router they have nine different frequencies that you can use if you find that it's interfering with anything you will have to read the directions on how to configure your router if you wish to change the channel